Now, blood test for schizophrenia

Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 14:51 [IST]

Subscribe to Oneindia News

Washington, Jan 21 (ANI): Schizophrenia diagnosis is set to become easier as a blood test will be available this year to detect the neuropsychiatric disorder, according to a reputed weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

Henry Arnaud, Senior Editor of Chemical and Engineering News, says the test is only a part of a much broader discussion of how non-brain cells are being used in research to study schizophrenia in a bid to speed the identification of biomarkers of the disorder and design new diagnostic tests.

She points out that schizophrenia does not only involve the brain but also abnormal levels of certain proteins which appear in other parts of the body.

The article also underscores a path-breaking study by a team of British suggesting that 40percent of the chemical changes in the brains of schizophrenia patients also take place in other parts of the body.

The UK researchers are examining these biomarkers in the skin, immune cells and blood of patients to come up with a bigger picture of the disease.

The article says, in contrast, most studies conducted earlier were done with brain tissue taken from patients after death.

The scientists have already discovered many schizophrenia biomarkers in the blood and have teamed up with a company that plans to introduce a blood test for detecting schizophrenia this year.

The test could help establish diagnoses made on the basis of psychiatric tests and enable earlier diagnosis so that patients can get treatment in the early stages of the disorder. (ANI)